OK so now I have a way of listing the latest published packages in a PPA. :-)

The key is that I can specify the series e.g. lucid or karmic and get results for each.

Note: Learning python as I go… :-)
Yes a better function is called for but this will do for now.

Advantages over the web interface:
It is easy to see the 8 packages I am interested in (out of the 50 in the ppa).
I can also quickly confirm when all the packages have been built (I just check the date).